Policy & Media

The BGS takes a leading role in policy debates and media outreach relating to healthcare for older people, acting as a voice for our members and the specialty of geriatrics.

In our policy and media work we promote the need for:

An end to the divide between health and social care.
Increased investment in health and social care for older people.
Access to comprehensive geriatric assessment, personalised care plans for treatment and follow-up for all older people with frailty, dementia, complex and multiple and long term conditions.
The building of greater capacity in intermediate care.
Staff across all care sectors to develop competencies in the management of older patients.
Measures of care to focus on what matters most to older people and their families.

We respond to public consultations to inform and influence the development of healthcare policy with the aim of ensuring that the key changes that we are calling for are addressed.

The BGS produces publications including clinical best practice guidance, and is involved with a number of collaborative projects and pilots across the UK.

Journalists seeking information about our work, or expert comment on older people’s healthcare, please visit our Media Enquiries page.

The BGS is increasingly seen as an important and powerful voice advocating for older people."

Dr Eileen Burns, Clinical Lead for Integration, Leeds, and BGS Past President

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BGS Wales Update - August 2018

The devolved national branches of the BGS report to the BGS Board of Trustees twice a year. These reports are published in BGS News. Here, Wales reports on its activities and workforce issues.

Social care: a summary of the framework and BGS's policy engagement

A lot of our policy and influencing work in the last year has focused on social care and the health impacts for older people, and the associated implications for our members' work, when there are difficulties in accessing good quality social care.

BGS Policy Update: Summer 2018

In order to make progress against our policy aims and objectives BGS engages in a mix of proactive and reactive activity. All of it is evidence-based and focused on the unique contribution that the Society is able to bring to inform policy development decisions. Some of it involves keeping a watching brief on external developments that have an impact on our members’ work and on the healthcare of older people. In this update I have provided a summary of recent developments and some of the engagement we have had.

BGS response to call for evidence on tackling loneliness

The Loneliness Strategy is Government’s first step in tackling the long-term challenge of loneliness. Loneliness is a complex issue that affects many different groups of people, and the evidence base on it is still developing.

EUGMS Survey on the assessment and management of urinary incontinence in the older patient

The Government response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee Second Report of Session 2017-19, ‘The Nursing Workforce’

The Government has published its response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee's Second Report of Session 2017-19 on 'The Nursing Workforce'.

The British Geriatrics Society calls for all healthcare professionals to learn from the Gosport Inquiry to help prevent future tragedies

The British Geriatrics Society is calling all healthcare professionals to review the Gosport Independent Panel Report, and to learn from these shocking events which led to the deaths of over 450 patients who were given opiate painkillers “without medical justification” from 1989 to 2000 at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hampshire.

The British Geriatrics Society welcomes £20 million investment to help tackle loneliness

Healthcare professionals now recognise loneliness as a ‘public health epidemic’ with evidence to suggest it is as bad for health outcomes as smoking 15 cigarettes a day

Lower deaths overall but frailty is still ‘fatal’, say researchers

A study published today in Age and Ageing, the scientific journal of the British Geriatrics Society, found that despite death rates in the UK now being much lower than in the 1990s, the relationship between higher levels of frailty and mortality remains unchanged.

‘How low to go?’ Top transatlantic research journals debate antihypertensive treatment

It is widely recognised that raised blood pressure is probably the single most important treatable risk factor for cardiovascular disease in later life. The evidence that older people can benefit from antihypertensive drugs has accumulated with a succession of randomised controlled trials over the past 35 years. These trials have shown reduced risk of stroke and myocardial infarction, as well as decreased total mortality.

BGS Scotland

Responsibility for the NHS in Scotland is a devolved matter and rests with the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government sets national objectives and priorities for the NHS and signs delivery plans with each NHS Board and Special NHS Board, monitoring their performance. NHS Boards in Scotland are currently all purpose organisations: they plan, commission and deliver NHS services and take overall responsibility for the health of their populations. There are 14 NHS Boards covering the whole of Scotland, supported by 7 National or Special NHS Boards. Work on integrating health and social care has made progress with Integration Joint Boards in place across Scotland; however the pace and efficiency of change is reported by clinicians to vary quite widely between different geographical areas.

BGS Response on the Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia 2020

The BGS responded to the review of the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020 by Department of Health and Social Care. While lauding the progress made in promotion of public messages, the BGS remains concerned that cuts to public health funding are a barrier to spreading the public health message

BGS response to consultation on workforce strategy

BGS recently responded to the public consultation by Health Education England with input from NHS England and other bodies, on its draft health and care workforce strategy for England to 2027. The focus was on the development of the strategy, which will be published in July 2018 to coincide with the NHS 70th anniversary. In our response we welcome the commitment to a free, universal healthcare system but state that we would like to have seen a greater recognition of and commitment to person-centred care being placed at the heart of the strategy.

Northern Ireland Update - Spring 2018

Dr Mark Roberts, Chair of BGS Northern Ireland reports on the branch's activities. Managing older people with frailty syndromes is, in common with other UK nations, rising up the wider Health and Social Care (HSC) agenda in Northern Ireland.

BGS Policy Update, Spring 2018

There have been lots of positive opportunities for engaging with key opinion formers and decision makers in the last few months. We have been busy making the most of these opportunities, as well as continuing to build and strengthen our links with other organisations that we want to work with.

RCP finds care still variable for people with COPD

The Royal College of Physicians has found that many patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) wait too long for treatment. The RCP has made recommendations to increase take up of pulmonary rehabilitation programmes.

Sustainability and transformation in the NHS

As well as balancing its books each year, the NHS needs to invest in new ways of working that can better serve the changing needs of patients and increasing demand for services. To facilitate a more long-term approach to achieving sustainability, local partnerships of commissioners, trusts and local authorities have been set up to develop long-term strategic plans and transform the way services are provided more quickly.

House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry into the right to freedom and safety: reform of deprivation of liberty safeguards

House of Commons Joint Inquiry by Communities and Local Govt, and Health Select Committees, on long-term funding of adult social care

New guidelines for recognising and assessing pain in older adults

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